Top 10: Shocking tackles

A quick peek at our run-down of football's worst tackles is enough for most to recoil in horror - well, unless your name's Harald Schumacher, that is...

Roy Keane on Alf-Inge Haaland

Manchester derby, 2001

The roots of this infamous knee-high tackle were bedded three years previously.

A mistimed Keane lunge at Leeds' Haaland resulted in a cruciate ligament injury for the United skipper - an injury to which the incensed Haaland was, unsurprisingly, less than sympathetic. The Norwegian stood over Keane's prone figure and denounced him (somewhat vociferously) as a faker.

Shockingly, Keane held a slight grudge about these actions, and in the 2001 Manchester derby Keane saw (or, rather, plotted) an opportunity for revenge, ensuring this 50-50 ball had similar odds of now City star Haaland being able to walk again.

A red card, five-game suspension and £150,000 fine followed, but hardly seemed a fitting punishment after the level of pre-meditation was revealed in Keane's autobiography.

Zinedine Zidane on Marco Materazzi

Italy vs France, 2006 World Cup Final

The world watched, rubbing its eyes. It was going so well - he had shown unbelievable impudence and class from the penalty spot earlier in the game, and there was a chance that he would have bowed out of football in the most romantic fashion.

But Zinedine Zidane's Glasgow Kiss to Marco Materazzi saw a legend of the game tarnish the final match of a glorious career with a red card. But it wasn't just any match - it was the World Cup final.

The newspapers had a field day, bandying about possible insults that could have pushed Zizou over the edge. The Daily Star, in particular, enjoyed their role in proceedings, "exclusively revealing" made-up details, about which they would later be forced to apologise.

The paper used a front-page photo with a speech bubble from Materazzi's mouth stating: "Your Mum's a Terrorist Wh*re." Their remarkable selection of headlines also included "What Made ZZ Blow His Top" and "Zid's Vicious Over Wh*re Slur on Mum - The Cruel Taunt That Made Legend Lose It."

Football hadn't seen such column inches in the UK since Goldenballs' leg twitch eight years previously. But should Zidane's nutting of the Italian have surprised people so much? The card was Zizou's 14th red - that's two more than Vinnie Jones.

Mario David on Leonel Sanchez

Chile vs Italy, 1962 World Cup

There are few matches that contain so many wince-inducing tackles that picking a 'most shocking' proves difficult. Then again, there aren't very many matches that are more commonly referred to as 'The Battle of Santiago'.

But the clash between Chile and Italy in World Cup '62 was one such encounter. It was a game that has to be seen to be believed; the British highlights introduced by David Coleman as "the most stupid, appalling, disgusting and disgraceful exhibition of football, possibly in the history of the game."

The match was rife with shocking tackles, punches and police intervention. Giorgio Ferrini was ejected after 10 minutes, and Mario David followed half an hour later for kicking Leonel Sanchez in the head in what the commentator calls "one of the most cruel-blooded and lethal tackles I have ever seen."

It says something about the 'Battle of Santiago' that the referee, Ken Aston, was actually the man that revolutionised football's disciplinary system.

Obviously harrowed by the events that took place on the field that day, it was Aston's idea to use red and yellow cards, and they have stuck since the 1970 World Cup.

Harald Schumacher on Patrick Battiston

Germany vs France, 1982 World Cup semi-final

The iconic foul.

With the score at 1-1 in the 1982 World Cup semi-final, France substitute Patrick Battiston bore down on goal, chasing a long ball that had also alerted German keeper Harald Schumacher.

The two raced towards each other at speed, but neither backed out of this football version of chicken. Battiston was focused on the ball, and reached it first, firing past the onrushing custodian. Schumacher - obviously the smarter of the two - decided to ignore the ball completely, and concentrated on surviving a crash by leaping and turning his body into his opponent.

Schumacher slammed into the Frenchman, catching him full in the face and immediately knocking out three teeth. Battiston was prone on the turf, toothless and with vertebrae damage, but the referee decided no foul had been committed, and resumed play, much to the astonishment of the players, as well as the fans.

"I thought he was dead," said Michel Platini, "because he had no pulse and looked pale."

Germany eventually won the game on penalties after a 3-3 extra time draw, and when the goalkeeper was informed of the damage he had caused he simply replied: "If that's all that's wrong with him, I'll pay him the crowns."

The heat makes us all do funny things: we get a bit irritable, a bit snappy. It seems to affect some more than others, however, and Ben Thatcher is a fine example of this.

In the late summer heat of 2004 he went mental. During Manchester City's pre-season tour of China, his elbow caused Yang Chungang to suffer a collapsed lung, and less than three weeks later he became the most hated man in English football with a horrendous assault on Portsmouth's Pedro Mendes.

As he and Pedro Mendes ran for a loose ball near the touchline, Thatcher intentionally led with his elbow, sending Mendes sprawling into the advertising hoardings and knocking him unconscious. Mendes needed oxygen at pitchside and suffered a seizure while being transferred to hospital, where he would spend the night.

The tackle was so bad that his own club issued Thatcher with a six-match ban on top the FA's eight-game suspension. He was also served with a 15-match ban suspended for two years.

Portsmouth's Matt Taylor echoed the thoughts of the thousands watching, incensed by the referee's decision to only hand Thatcher a yellow card: "How can that not be a sending-off? What do you have to do, kill someone?," he fumed, understandably.

Benjamin Massing on Claudio Caniggia

Cameroon vs Argentina, 1990 World Cup

Argentina's flying forward Claudio Caniggia was not to make it through the Italia '90 clash with Cameroon.

At least that's what the Indomitable Lions must have been told in their pre-match brief. This particularly powerful body-check came after Caniggia's impressive 80-yard solo dash refused to be halted by an attempted block on the half-way line and another cynical Cameroonian lunge moments later.

Massing's effort ensured his team-mates ambitions were fulfilled, however, as his rhino-like charge sent the Argentinian, just regaining his footing from the last attempt on his life, slamming into the turf.

Massing then amusingly kicks out at an opponent blocking his route to his boot, lost in the clash, before putting it back on in the vain hope that the ref would allow him to play on. He didn't.

Graeme Souness on Unlucky Romanian

Rangers vs Steaua Bucharest, 1988

Calling Graeme Souness hot-headed is a bit like saying John Terry doesn't mind French women.

About two minutes into this video of Rangers' fine victory over Romania Steaua Bucharest, the Scot ploughs into his opponent's thigh with his studs raised and a very deliberate downward thrust.

While the offender may not be surprising, the offence is. The unusual thing about this particular incident is that the Sky Sports charisma-vacuum wasn't making a tackle. He had the ball at the time.

That's right, Souness was dribbling, saw someone attempting to nick the ball from his toes and so nicked a chunk out of their leg before they got their tackle in.

He then protested long and hard that he was, in fact, the innocent party, rubbing his leg and showing the proof (or lack of it) to the referee. Unfortunately for Souness, the ref had eyes, and promptly sent him off. Rangers went out on aggregate.

Nigel de Jong on Xabi Alonso

Netherlands vs Spain, 2010

There's something about World Cup finals that brings the worst out in players.

The Netherlands' hack hapiness was eventually punished by karma in Johannesburg as Spain lifted the trophy, but not before Vicente del Bosque's boys had taken some serious punishment. Referee Howard Webb was forced to dish out a record 14 yellow cards in the final, which eclipsed the previous record of six set in 1986.

Johnny Heitinga was sent off, and Mark van Bommel's hatchet job was particularly memorable, but nothing epitomised the dirty Dutch quite like De Jong's studs-up karate kick to the chest of Xabi Alonso. Incredibly the former Manchester City enforcer escaped a red card, with Webb later admitting that his view was restricted.

Pepe on Javi Casquero

Real Madrid vs Getafe, 2009

There's seconds remaining in a clash with your local rivals, and you haul down one of the opposition inside the area.

The scoreboard reads 2-2, and you could now be to blame for your side failing to pick up a point.

You're angry, and look around for something to kick - but all you can see is the opponent you felled, lying prone on the grass like a big blue pinada. So, you boot him several times and stand all over him before giving his mate a little smack in the face - that's natural, right?

Real Madrid's Pepe thought so, shown a red card and escorted from the pitch by team-mate Iker Casillas after his somewhat savage release of frustration all over Getafe's unlucky Casquero and his buddy Juan Albin.

Unfortunately for Pepe, the Spanish FA didn't agree and handed him an eight-game ban ruling him out for the rest of the season. And if you thought things couldn't get any worse for Pepe's plaything, Casquero, his spot-kick was saved by Casillas, before Gonzalo Higuain scored a brilliant winner.

Axel Witsel on Marcin Wasilewski

Standard Liege vs Anderlecht 2009

Derby matches are always hot-blooded affairs, and the clashes between Standard Liege and Anderlecht are no different. But last August's fixture featured one terrible incident that has taken their rivalry to another level.

The season before, starlet Axel Witsel was the hero who scored the decisive penalty in Standard's play-off win against Anderlecht that brought their second successive title.

In this derby, however, he committed one of the most hideous football tackles ever recorded on camera, with a savage lunge on Anderlecht defender Marcin Wasilewski leaving the Pole with a double open-tibia fracture, and the watching world wincing, appalled.

An unbelievably lenient €250 fine and a 10-game ban followed - one that was soon reduced to eight matches, much to the consternation of Belgium and most of the football world. To further endear himself to the Anderlecht faithful, January's return derby saw him leap into another terrible challenge (on Roland Juhasz) and see red once again.